Chapter Text
Elliot leaves behind Richard Wheatley’s maniacal voice and turns, finding Angela regarding him questioningly. He scowls at her, gesturing her through the next door, back to her lawyer. As he and Ayanna watch the officers load Angela back into the van for transport, Ayanna turns to him. “Well?”
“You can’t trust either of them. But he was trying to insinuate…” Elliot turns to her as the van pulls away. “We all need to be extra careful. I wouldn’t put it past Wheatley to try to hurt us.”
Ayanna nods, “What did he say to you? Did he threaten your family?”
“He’s not as direct as that. But I’m not in the mood to take chances. I gotta go take care of my family. You should do the same.”
He leaves Ayanna as she places calls to the team, checking up on them and sharing Elliot’s concerns. In the car he calls the kids, asks them to be extra careful, to let him know if anything strange happens.
But there was only one name that wasn’t spoken in that room. Only one person the threats were really lodged at. As he’d watched Wheatley’s melodramatic announcement to Angela, Elliot had found himself fighting every instinct to fly across the room and throttle the man. His every muscle tensed and held as he’d stared over at him and wondered how the hell Wheatley so confidently knew. He’s sure if the name had left Wheatley’s lips he wouldn’t have been able to hold back. But he also knew he couldn’t give the man any extra confirmation. Couldn’t risk admitting how dead on the assessment was.
And so it’s with a singular focus that Elliot parks, arriving at the building door as someone is exiting and finding his way up to the unfamiliar apartment door. He knows it’s late, but there’s only one concern in his mind as he rings the bell.
It feels like eternity until she answers and when she does, she looks confused, sleepy, wearing a thin grey cotton nightie that falls just above her knees. Before she can utter a word, he is striding past her, “I need you to come with me.” He glances around the darkened apartment as Olivia, closes the door, turns on a lamp.
“What?” Is all she manages before he closes the distance between them and wraps his hands around her bare biceps. “It’s not safe,” he says and he watches her eyes move to his lips, down his neck to the v of his shirt, a blush blooming in her cheeks. His fingertips slide against her skin and he thinks about pulling her closer, but then she steps back, breaking his hold.
“What are you doing here? How do you have my address?” She’s shrinking away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.
Elliot shakes his head, matching her confusion, wondering why it matters. “Fin.”
Olivia rolls her eyes in response, walking past him to peek into Noah’s room. He follows, glancing in as she shuts the door and turns back to him.
“What happened?” Olivia asks as she pulls a hoodie off the back of a dining room chair and tugs it on.
She moves back to the living room and he follows as he says, “We arrested Richard Wheatley.”
“I heard. Congratulations. You must be relieved.” Olivia turns to him.
“He threatened you.”
He watches Olivia frown, “What? Why?”
Elliot pauses, realizing he has no plan here. Hadn’t thought beyond the need to find her, secure her. “He...he knows you’re important to me.”
Liv looks at him worried, “Your kids?”
Elliot shakes his head, “I checked on them. But he was threatening you.”
Liv’s gaze slides away from him, her brow furrowing, “I don’t understand…”
“It doesn’t matter. You need to come with me. You and Noah. Now.” The urgency is there in his voice, in the tension in his shoulders.
“I’m not a civilian, Elliot. I can take care of us.” Liv looks back to him, smirking.
It takes him back twenty odd years and he thinks he would have insisted on keeping her safe then too if he hadn’t had vows to keep.
“Liv, I watched that car blow up with Kathy inside it. I am not taking any chances with you. I cannot lose you again.”
The smirk falls away from her face at his words, at their intensity, desperation, fear and they stand there staring at each other as the seconds tick past.
“I’ll stay here.” Elliot says finally, gesturing to the couch. And he’s relieved when she slowly nods.
He follows her into her room and watches her pull out an extra blanket and pillow. When she turns back to him, he’s standing right there and she freezes as his hands come up and cradle her head. He presses his lips to her forehead, her arms clasped around the blanket and pillow pushing against the heat of his chest. His lips skitter down the side of her face, glancing against her cheekbone, her jawline. He hovers over her lips and just when he thinks he will lean forward and kiss her, he loses his nerve and pulls back instead.
“Liv…” she’s looking up at him and he wants to tell her exactly what Richard Wheatley had said, exactly how right he was. How she has always been the one true love of his life. But he’s scared and he can’t seem to voice the words. So instead he shakes his head, “Thanks...for letting me stay.” And he takes the blanket and pillow and walks out of her room, closing the door before he changes his mind and finishes what he started.